Archive for September, 2014

Streamlight is one of those “staples” in this industry and even though Surefire is pretty much the comparison to Streamlight, there is always a niche that one does better than the other. There have been some price drops for some of the Surefire G2 models and it’s basically due to the improvement of technology and manufacturing ease. I went through that xenom flashlight faze and all of the LED upgrade but now that LED has been around so long, there are newer generations with much larger output. Even though flashlights are considered bullet magnets, if the flashlight is damn bright you aren’t going to see anything if you are close to it. Sure at distances you are drawing attention to yourself and if somebody sees that they might fire on you, but we’re not talking about SWAT tactical or Military operations. For close situations something like the Streamlight Protac 2L which I highly recommend with the CR123 battery type is a 260 Lumen flashlight. The strobe features are nice if you train with it but can also be very annoying for non-tactical or defense purposes.

The size of the flashlight, the make up of the body and the output and run time are making flashlights, lighter, stronger and better. What usually throws a monkey wrench into the reputation of some flashlights are when you are putting mounts on them or running pressure switches. I have had a higher failure rate with some click on and off flashlights compared to the screw on cap lights, but no where near what pressure switches have. Pressure switches need better mounting to avoid breakage and excessive wear and so many people don’t pay attention to that. Get a cord that gets the job done and don’t allow it to be able to bent back and forth. There are some interesting ways of running them through handguards so read up on it. The HL or High Lumen flashlights like the Strion HL have the perfect size Streamlight LED Flashlights for most Law Enforcement, the Streamlight Survivor is heavily used in Fire and Rescue.

I’m all for looking for ways to improve whichever firearm you choose to carry, even if you shoot it well on a firing range and it fits your hand, how well will you shoot it in low light? How well do you shoot it in 95F temperatures on a bright sunny day? Sight pictures with black on black in dark hazy days can mean not having a sight picture and there will be no contrast. Even the designers of the Trijicon TA01NSN knew to put a front night sight on the backup irons. Technology is changing and and there are reasons why you should consider updating whatever iron sights you have and even consider putting a light or laser or your firearm. Sure there is always a balance between lightweight and bulk but even for a home defense firearm, pulling a full size semi-auto having a TLR1 flashlight is a none issue. There are plenty of really bad stories in the news about people accidentally shooting girlfriends or wives and lighting up your presumed threat might mean not shooting.

Shooting a firearm with a light is very different than shooting without a light, you will have to practice so you don’t pull the firearm off target when you activate the light and under stress, you have to really practice to unlearn this. I can’t say enough that people need to spend more time with firearm safety training and scenario training because there are just so many bad examples in the news right now of Cops shooting unarmed individuals and these recent South Carolina shooting is just gas on the fire. I don’t care how decorated you are, we’re talking about defending lives and taking them, whether you are Law Enforcement or non-Law Enforcement. If you are open carrying, there should always be consideration about levels of retention so you aren’t one of those people that discharges a firearm while sitting on the toilet. Sounds funny but that bullet is going somewhere and can end of life. Recently Blackhawk has released the Black Hawk Epoch holster and although it looks like they are still working on broadening which firearms they are manufacturing them for, Safariland Holsters ALS Holsters that can also give you a Level II holster and can be used as a paddle or belt holster are excellent choices.

Without having to steal anyone imagery, I’ll just defer you to Google to see what some of the other bloggers have mentioned and that there have already been changes to the Glock 42 .380 caliber pistol. It’s not a surprise to us because we see stuff like this all the time, if you’re the first person to buy the gun, you might end up with basically the commercial prototype and the guy that buys the same same gun a year later will have some type of extractor, recoil spring, slide stop change, hammer spring change, take down pin, trigger pin change that your gun was found be fault with. I learned this less about 15yrs ago when a friend had a Kahr pistol that he had to send back because the trigger pins we’re falling out of them. Well, Kahr firearms has a pretty well established name in the industry but it doesn’t mean they haven’t made engineering mistakes. For all of the things that NASA has accomplished in existence, it’s has some pretty catastrophic mistakes. Things always seem like they’ll work on the drawing board but when it comes to fielding, there are too many variables that absolute testing is an impossibility.

I’ve seen too many patterns and trends go awry that the advice is to always go slow. Don’t be one of those guys that goes out and picks up a gun at a gun show and then finds out there aren’t any holsters for it. Is you picked up a pile of Magpul Gen 3 PMAGS in the last year and a half, you better go back and check them in your firearms because there were some pretty big batches that are out of spec and they are out there. You’ll usually always better to stick with Factory Magazines because they tend to get it right or improve on it rather than an aftermarket magazine that won’t know about firearm tweaks and modifications. Since we have found out there are already changes to Glock 42 Glock Factory Magazines we’ve had to make sure we didn’t have the first run mags here because we know that somebody is going to call us out on it because of the changes. We always listen to our customers and learn from them because that’s just the only way you can really stay in the know. Obviously Glock Inc. got some negative feedback and had to make changes.

For the number of hours i’ve spent on the firing line and the list of brand names and mishaps I see with equipment, I’ve pretty much learned that if you buy the less expensive stuff, and you shoot a lot, it’s not going to last. It might get the job done for 3000 rounds before the scope looses zero, or the mount screws will sheer or crack or you’ll discover all of the failing points. I won’t give a blank statement saying that one brand is always better than another because the one thing we notices in this industry is there are plenty of manufacturers that are putting out decent optics for less month than some of the more well known companies and that’s simply due to the fact that engineering is improving. I will always suggest you check out warranties on products and also check online about reviews, but make sure you have good bull shit meter when you read them because plenty of people complain about things that were their faults, or it’s all second hand knowledge.

Sometimes the people that cut the most corners with optics are people that are hunting and the truth of the matter is that hunting rifles tend to not have as many rounds through them as something like an AR15 or SKS rifle. With Trijicon Accupoint Scopes you are getting a little bit more into a hunting optic that wasn’t previously around, a pole reticle so you are getting literally pin point accuracy if you sighted the gun in properly, illumination what rarely existed before and the option of a durable 1-4×24 Compact optic with a wide ocular lense (the back of the scope) and helps find your sight picture quickly. The reticle illumination is adjustable by adjusting a rear closure and this is extremely important for sunny days when you gotta cut back on the illumination and in low light allow more illumination.

I’ve had an Otis kit that pretty much covers all of my semi-auto rifle gun cleaning, but I think the best thing about these kits are that they are so easy to store. Dealing with private security and military contractors that are traveling around the Country, this is a very coming thing is to pickup an Otis AR15 gun cleaning kit. Some of the kits can be stowed in the storage in your buttstock or in the grip storage if you have a grip that will take it. From my experience I didn’t have any rattling which I thought it might at first but wasn’t much of an issue. Things are very different when you are outside and dealing with climate changes and wind and dust. Just recently we had a State Trooper in our store that told us that someone on his motorcycle actually had a gun rust shut because all of the weather got to it over the course of several months and they had to take a hammer to it. Things like dust covers on an AR15 don’t mean so much if you are going to the range and coming home and putting it back in a gun safe but out in the field, it’s the difference between a clean bolt carrier group and a non-functioning one.

There are other things to consider with the Otis kits and there are some kits that come with lense cleaners which do a good job of getting dirt out of the hard to get to spots, like parts between the objective tube and the lense. Even though I use boresnakes a lot the AR15 cleaning kit is in my range backpack all the time. We see a lot of Otis Gun Cleaning Kits in Border Protection and Private Security personnel as well as Hunters going on Safari. There are multi caliber cleaning kit options and one of the other major selling points is you don’t need to carry a cleaning rod with you because the wire, if used properly should accommodate your cleaning needs, Handgun cleaning kits, rifle cleaning kits and shotgun cleaning kits.

I hope everyone reading this owns a gun safe. I understand that some people don’t have kids in the house and do leave firearms by the bedside or hidden in their home for self defense but there are plenty of reasons you really should be locking your guns up. What I do notice is that many of the larger rifle gun safes really aren’t very accurate when it comes to telling you how many firearms you can fit in it because optics, slings and stocks can bulk up space and make that 18 gun safe turn into a 12 or 14 gun safe real fast. Some gun safes have shelves that you can use that will hold handguns in them and there are replacement inner panels that you can also use for mounting handguns. One other consideration is to just put a flat shelf in and buy one of these Gun Racks which really do make a difference in keeping your stuff organized and not bouncing off of one another. It also makes retrieving and putting guns away much easier.

Many of my associates have progressed toward building hidden rooms with re-enforced doors and turning a room in their house into a closet/safe. Many times you can easily build your own gun racks but for the cost of these Versatile gun racks and Vesatile Gun Shelves you have solve the problem real fast. I have seen plenty of times where some of the gun safes with the cutouts for handguns will actually allow the firearm to fall through the shelving and possible hit one of your rifles that has an optic on it and a Colt 1911 falling 18 inches down onto a Zeiss Conquest Rifle Scope isn’t going to be pretty. Just something to think about.

The first thing you need to do when learning to hit your target is paying attention to your front sight. It’s funny how, after time, its very easy to adapt to different scopes, iron sights ect quickly when you’ve had some range time. Someone with experience just moves their head around until they find the sight picture while an inexperienced person might have trouble even finding a reticle. Eye relief can vary from optic to optic and there are big differences between something like the Trijicon TA11H-G and the Ta31F-G. There are plenty of reasons to move away from just having black on black front and rear sights but you don’t have to put something that also announces a bright neon color on your firearm. I’ll never forget the time I was changing a target at 500yds, during a cease fire, and could see the glimmer of various objective lenses and neon strands across the tables. There are reasons people wrap rags around their scopes to limit the fiber optic exposure and there are reasons for kill flashes on objective lenses.

Even though handguns aren’t usually decked out with too many optics, I’ve seen some very hi-visibility sights that are too visible on the other side of the barrel. For the same reasons flashlights can be a target indicator, so can your sighting system on a rifle or a handgun. I have several of the older Trijicon Night Sights on various pistols and once they get to about 10yrs, I have to replace them. I lean heavily toward the Trijicon High Definition Night Sights since they have very good application in low light as well as extreme clarity in day light. They are available for Glock Firearm, Sig Handguns and Springfield XD. Definitely consider looking them over because they are one of our hottest selling replacement sights.

The Mission Drives the gear, whether you know that phrase or not, you may want something that you can wear in the winter that easily accessible under a winter coat, but since you are planning for carrying in winter, you need to have the appropriate holster, and if you don’t you’ll find out real fast when you can’t even get to your gun because your shirt is caught on it, came un-tucked or you can sweep your clothing out of the way and grip your firearm. The problem we deal with constantly, is that nobody really knows just by looking at a holster on how deep it will go IWB and this is all about body type and firearm preference. One of the main reasons we like to push the Galco Kingtuk holsters on people is there really is a lot of versatility to that design if you are mentally willing to adapt to it. It’s kind of a Crossbreed holster knock off, but we’ve done well with them and the only complaints are from people that think it’s too big. Well, how many people think their car seat belt is too big? You have to adjust it and all of the adjustments are up to you to fit it to your body when you sit down.

Something like the Galco Kingtuk, Desantis Scorpion and even the CrossBreed holsters have screws that can raise and lower the depth of the gun in the holster and there are always going to be levels of adjustment and adaptation. So many firearms are getting smaller and more durable and recently the Smith & Wesson Shield has become the number one firearm that everyone is asking for Gun Holsters. Everyone once in awhile I force myself to go to various firearm events, gun rentals and ask my friends to bring something with them whenever we have a group shoot, and that’s how I try to stay up with what might be catching on in the industry. So much of the industry is geared towards Zombie Apocalypse and Competition shooting and there are plenty of guns that just don’t do well and the holster options that are available will show it. If it’s a popular gun, you’ll find a good gun holster if you search properly, if it’s not, better get a good gun rack in your gun safe to hang it on.

I’ve recently had to jump back in the Laptop world and move away from just using a phone because I find even the modern technology to not as easy and fast to type on when it’s too small. It all depends on what you have to do, but I know there are plenty of people using keyboard fire controls because you do want to be able to type with both hands and not do the one finger dance. The Mission Drives the gear, and it’s why so many of us have multiple firearms that we carry or multiple back packs and molle gear. There are always unknowns in this industry, breaking points, versatility and comfort. You always need to see what people are using around you and the proper way to mount, tolerances and application. You can buy a really nice tactical bag and load it up with what you want in it, an as soons as you through it on your back, you’ll wish you had a backpack with a belt attached to it to keep it from wacking you while you walk. Did you know that was going to happen when you purchased it empty on the store wall?

Stitching is always a debate when it comes to what brand of backpack you are going to buy because not all nylon gear is the same quality and not every one stitches the same way. You will find out about the short cuts some companies make and the loading tolerances of each pouch that was attached to the bag. We have gotten good reports on most of the 5.11 backpacks and that’s why we sell them. Lots of Paramedics are using the Rush 24 and Rush 72 and often want to see both side by side. There are now Multicam and varying degrees of Gray tactical bags. Think about what you “may” want to attach to the bag before you buy it and check with someone that already owns one and see what it feels like, where they place things and how you might get what you need out of it.

Many years ago there was a gun show in Pennsylvania where a whole bunch of firearms were stolen from a vendor that left the show, and stopped to get something to eat at a restaurant or diner and while he ate, all of his firearms were stolen from his vehicle. In this situation it was a large number of firearms including Class III. What a total nightmare, but anyone that parks a vehicle that has anything resembling a firearm where only a window is stopping them from grabbing it is asking for trouble. Most people transport firearms in gun cases and a few times I’ve seen people transport them in a blanket because they didn’t have a gun case, but the best thing to do is get an appropriate gun case, gun sock, and for everyone sake, keep it out of visibility. If you are a gun owner, whenever you look to buy a new car, make sure you get your windows tinted because that can make a big difference.

What are some options for carrying a low profile gun case? Sure tennis rackets and baseball gear gets stolen, computers lap tops, cell phone chargers ect, but if someone doesn’t know what you are transporting to and from your car, it’s just a bag. Elite Survival Gun Cases are highly recommended by our staff and purchased by gun owners, both Law Enforcement and Private Citizens for similar reasons. We had a customer walk into our store about a year ago because his neighbors teenagers got caught selling drugs and he didn’t want anyone knowing what he was doing when he was going out on a Saturday afternoon to his gun club. The same goes for pistol cases like the 4 Gun pistol pack that looks nothing more than a black back, but has room for 4 handguns, magazines and whatever else that floats your boat.